This is the Sept. 22, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
Hello, “Morning Joe” Family!
We love hearing from you. Here’s what was on your mind this week. As always, you can write to us any time.
Joe, why doesn’t Trump end the war and end tariffs to have a shot at keeping one [house] of Congress? Why aren’t Republicans doing anything to help the American people?
— Linda, San Antonio, Texas
Hi Linda,
Thanks so much for the question.
Iran continues to be a problem for this president, and members of his administration are now admitting the war could drag on for another six months.
The president can’t end the war quickly because, as foreign policy experts like to say, the White House had a vote on when to start this war but the Iranians have a vote on when it ends.
One gets the feeling Iran’s leaders believe they have Donald Trump exactly where they want him. Just as they humiliated Jimmy Carter throughout the last year of his presidency, the Revolutionary Guard plans to do the same to this American president.
Months ago, Trump offered those leaders a memorandum of understanding that was little more than a bribe worth hundreds of billions of dollars to open the Strait. If they had willingly agreed to be paid off, Iran would have received more in war reparations than the Germans paid Allied forces after the First World War.
The Islamic Republic would have become the most powerful country in the region. But the Revolutionary Guard refused the deal because its leaders wanted to make America pay for the war Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu started.
Now that he has discovered that some radicals can’t be bought off, Trump has taken the most rational path left to him: to continue the economic strangulation of the Iranian regime until it is ready to negotiate in good faith. With Iran’s economy battered, that may prove to be the only feasible approach, but that is a path that requires patience. As gas and diesel prices skyrocket across America, the question is whether the president remains patient through the election.
Regarding tariffs, that destructive policy prescription has always come naturally to Donald Trump. He has long preached about the importance of protectionism and high tariffs. Unfortunately for Republicans, those beliefs are causing inflation and economic chaos where most Americans live.
The inflation and high interest rates resulting from wars and tariffs remain the Republican Party’s greatest challenge heading into this midterm election.
What can I/we do as concerned citizens to stop Moscow on the Potomac from attacking and attempting to destroy our free press?
— Anonymous
You can start in your hometown. Pay for journalism, especially local.
A press dependent on a handful of advertisers, or a media conglomerate, or a billionaire’s volatile mood is far easier to intimidate.
A media landscape sustained by its viewers and readers has a stronger foundation and is far more resilient.
Subscribe to your city paper, your state capitol nonprofit newsroom, your public radio station. And find national outlets that don’t kowtow to the powers that be in Washington, on Wall Street, or Silicon Valley.
When a reporter breaks important news, buy a subscription that day. Grassroots support increases a media outlet’s independence.
And remember, the free press is saved by viewers and readers like you. Support journalism, demand that your representative champions free speech, and let your neighbor know that the conspiracy theories they spout are created on websites to drive traffic through viral lies and radical takes.
Media outlets supported by reporters, editors, and high journalistic standards are worth defending.
Thanks for your important question!
It’s often said that ending the war with Iran will lower gas prices. Do you all believe that? My 79 years tells me we will never see $3 gas again. The oil industry has seen what it can get away with. Four-dollar gas is here to stay. What do you think?
— Paul W., La Crosse, Wis.
Paul, energy prices have been volatile throughout our lifetimes. Wars, supply chain disruptions, and high demand for energy often drive those prices up.
When bad economic times hit, we often see demand dropping and the price of gas going down, like it did during Covid and the 2008 recession.
Here’s hoping we will see gas prices drop below $4 a gallon after the war with Iran ends. Consumers are being crushed by the financial burden energy costs are putting in the backs of too many working Americans. Our leaders in Washington must do better.
What steps do you think we can take to help restore as many of the traditions and norms — so important to how our government and society work — which have been fractured, and some outright shattered?
— Kevin E., Anderson, Ind.
Many believe the breaching of constitutional norms and societal standards will continue defining America years after Donald Trump leaves the White House.
Let me offer a respectful dissent.
America has been shaped by a long and turbulent history that includes glorious advances and shameful setbacks. But I have long believed, like Martin Luther King Jr., that the arc of history is long and it bends toward justice.
We have seen over the past decade our government attacking civil rights, human rights, constitutional norms, and basic societal conventions. How ironic that the very people complaining for half a century about the radicalization of America are the ones who radicalized politics, adopted cruelty as a guiding principle, defined deviancy down inside the White House, and worked overtime to divide one American from another.
We can do better. We will do better. And we can start by electing leaders to Washington who will check Donald Trump’s worst impulses and begin the work of restoring balance to Madisonian democracy.
I believe in America, and understand that even through our most difficult times, millions have strived to keep moving this nation toward being a more perfect union. That’s why I always keep the words of Carl Sandburg close to my heart:
“I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision.”
The post “The White House may have decided to start this war but Iranians have a vote on when it ends”: Joe answers reader questions appeared first on MS NOW.
